Articles by Amir Khaidar

ALMATY – The European Union, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Kazakhstan launched Oct. 18 an education programme to train and educate several dozen Afghan women in Kazakh universities over the next five years. The first group of thirty women were selected in September out of 535 initial applicants. The selected women passed a…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s external debt decreased by $2.2 billion in the second quarter of 2018. As of July 1, the external debt is $164.4 billion, or 96 percent of GDP, reported the National Bank of Kazakhstan. The reduction was due to the balance of payments, in particular, through the repayment of foreign loans collected from…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan will be employing sustainable waste management to reduce environmental pollution and increase the volume of recycling to 40 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050, said Kazakh Minister of Energy Kanat Bozumbayev at an Oct. 2 cabinet meeting. Every year, more than five million tonnes of solid waste go to landfills…

ASTANA – The sports drama “Time of the Stalwarts” about kokpar, the game practiced by several Turkic peoples, premiered Sept. 20 in theatres across Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The screenwriter and director of the film is Ruslan Akun from Kyrgyzstan, known for the films “Salam,” “New York” and “Finding Mother.” “This is Ruslan Akun’s first work…

ASTANA – The Astana basketball team presented its new head coach and players ahead of the VTB United League season opener on Oct. 7 against CSKA Moscow. “We are starting the new season with a new coach, Emil Rajkovic from Macedonia. We invited new players; some of them are quite famous and talented. They are…

ASTANA – Italian Davide Villella won the fifth consecutive Tour of Almaty for Astana Pro Team. The two-day race, part of the International Cycling Union Asia Tour, is the highest-ranking international cycling competition in Central Asia. Introduced last year, the race features two stages. The first is a 182-kilometre race through the streets of Kazakhstan’s…

ASTANA – Higher education leaders, scholars and representatives of government bodies gathered June 7 in Astana for the annual Eurasian Higher Education Leaders Forum to share their ideas, expertise and experience in changing higher education to meet the challenges of the age of disruption. Kazakh Secretary of State Gulshara Abdykalikova in her welcoming address highlighted…

ASTANA – A new $19 million hangar will allow Air Astana to perform routine line maintenance and subsequent heavy checks at its hub in the capital. “This year the capital of Kazakhstan, in honour of which the company was named Air Astana, marks its 20th anniversary. The flag carrier marks its 16th year of operations.…

ASTANA – Kazakh boxer and 2013 world amateur boxing champion Zhanibek Alimkhanuly has signed up with well-known manager Egis Klimas and will fight professionally in the same division as world champion Kazakh middleweight Gennady Golovkin. He hopes to fight a championship bout in approximately two years. Alimkhanuly has earned a well-deserved reputation in amateur boxing,…

ASTANA – Leading global economic experts and Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) executives outlined important changes in the global financial system and the role of financial centres in the rapidly changing financial environment of the 21st century at a May 18 panel session of the Astana Economic Forum dedicated to the new geography of finance.…

ASTANA – Germany’s annual mare’s milk week was held on the largest mare milk farm in the town of Waldbrunn-Mülben. The festivities culminated in the Kumys (fermented mare’s milk) Spring Festival with traditional Kazakh food and music. The event has attracted residents from local villages and Kazakhs residing in Germany. This year’s festival included bird…

ASTANA – Ministers and senior government officials from landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and development partners recently gathered in Astana for a two-day meeting to determine ways in which trade, economic transformation and the development of transport infrastructure can benefit LLDCs. “I am delighted that ministers from landlocked developing countries have come together in Astana to…

ASTANA – Kazakh businesses and regional executive bodies signed agreements with Belarus-Russian Galaktika, a leading Eastern European technological company, on the fringes of the Astana Economic Forum. The memoranda, inked by Transtelecom, Zerde, the national info-communications company, Astana Innovations and the West Kazakhstan region akimat (administration), will serve as a starting point for the country’s…

ASTANA – Together with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Kazakh Ministry of Finance has been successful in implementing the ASTANA-1 electronic customs system. It systematises customs procedures by issuing digital declarations for transited, exported and imported goods. ASTANA-1 was launched in stages, starting from transit subsystem that came into effect…

ASTANA – From May 23 to 26, Astana will host KADEX 2018, its international biennial exhibition of weapons systems and military equipment. Kazakh Minister of Defence and Aerospace Industry Beibut Atamkulov discussed in detail the format and content of the coming exhibition, the 5th KADEX, in an exclusive interview with The Astana Times. “This is…

ASTANA – Kokshetau is considered one of Kazakhstan’s most charming cities, located among beautiful lakes and mountains covered with dense coniferous forests. Kokshetau is translated from Kazakh as “Blue Mountain” and the name is apt. The Blue Mountain (Kokshe Tau) is the highest peak in the Kokshe Mountains, reaching 947 metres. Many songs, poems and…

ASTANA – Baiterek Development, a subsidiary of Baiterek Holding, will release 1,300 Expo Town apartments for sale June 1, reported tengrinews.kz. The buildings were rented by Astana EXPO 2017 and returned to the company after the international exhibition. “Forty-two apartment buildings were built in 2016. They housed international delegations participating in EXPO 2017. Property construction…

ASTANA – Nicknamed “Jackson” in his youth for wearing a sweatband like the famous NBA player, today Rustam Yergali is an icon of Kazakhstan’s basketball. In the midst of a career spent on the court, the 31-year-old gave advice and predictions for the future of Kazakh basketball. “My career began in Kostanai; I saw NBA…

ASTANA – The Kazakh government allocated 500 million tenge (US$1.5 million) in 2017 and more than 800 million tenge (US$2.5 million) in 2018 to build infrastructure to make the Alakol shoreline a tourism hotspot. Due to natural climatic conditions, winter sports, fishing, hunting, medical, cultural and beach tourism are developing in the region, said Symbat…

ASTANA – More than 1,500 applications have been submitted for the 48 Hour Film Race 2018 organised by the U.S. embassy in Kazakhstan. Participants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are also eligible to compete in this year’s event. Teams are given 48 hours to conceive the idea, write the script, film and edit a…

ASTANA – Spina Bifida Public Association (SBPA) was founded in 2015 by parents of children born with the disease to inform medical specialists, parents and the general public about the disorder. In an exclusive interview with The Astana Times, co-founders Anara Battalova and Aida Kolpakova shared their personal experiences and insights into how others can…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan can offer the world a completely different model of state secularism and may serve as an example for other Muslim-majority states, according to a recent study published by the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP). After the fall of the Soviet Union, independent Kazakhstan, like other Central Asian countries, adopted…

ASTANA – Eighty percent of Kazakhs who test HIV positive will receive antiretroviral therapy by the end of the year, reported BNews.kz. Only 54 percent of patients received the therapy in 2006 and the government has taken significant measures in the last decade with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO). “In order to…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan plans to open three new nature reserves, Sacred Kazakhstan Science and Research Centre Head Berik Abdygaliuly announced at a recent exhibit dedicated to the one-year anniversary of Kazakhstan’s National Identity Programme or Rukhani Zhangyru, inform.kz reports. “Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev initiated the idea and his administration supported it,” he said. “The first…

ASTANA – According to the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs, in 2018, 30,000 people will receive entrepreneurial training and 6,000 of them will launch businesses after completing the entrepreneurial programme. The initiative part of the Bastau-Business project, which is part of the second direction of the Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship Development programme. The project…

ASTANA – More than 58,740 vehicles have been collected in Kazakhstan since 2016 as part of a nationwide government campaign to collect and recycle scrap vehicles. The goal is to recycle 250,000 vehicles by 2021. Seventeen collection sites were established across the country. Collected vehicles are crushed to form massive bricks and later shipped to…

ASTANA –Scientists and business people gathered in Astana April 6 to discuss sustainable development at the first annual Research Forum for Central Asia. The forum was organised by Kazakh students and scholars studying at universities in the United Kingdom. The forum includes two gatherings, a previous meeting in London and the April 6 event in…

ASTANA – Afghan public health workers arrived in the Kazakh capital April 2 for a two-week capacity-building seminar on maternal and child healthcare organised by the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The inaugural panel session was attended by top-ranking officials…

ASTANA – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is allocating 24.2 billion tenge (US$75.8 million) to reconstruct the Zhambyl region irrigation system. The deal is part of the extensive financing package signed in May which will invest more than 57 billion tenge (US$180 million) to rebuild irrigation systems across three Kazakh regions. Zhambyl…

ASTANA – An ensemble will perform at the Astana Opera April 13 the works by the late and renowned Argentine composer Astor Piazolla. Original interpretations of tango music will be presented by the instrumental ensemble Ritmos de Amor in the Chamber Hall of the Astana Opera. The ensemble includes Konstantin Strigin on accordion, Kirill Krasyukov…